Guangzhou Para-Asian Games flame lit in Beijing

The 2010 Guangzhou Para-Asian Games flame has taken just 3.88 seconds to be ignited by sun ray in a traditional ceremony at the China Millenium Monument on a freezing Friday morning.

Chinese swimmer Zhou Jiawei (L) and Adilan Aierken, a disable student from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, light the Guangzhou Para-Asian Games flame at China Millenium Monument in Beijing, Dec 3, 2010. A brief starting relay ceremony will be held Saturday morning at Tiananmen Square ahead of a seven-day torch relay around Guangzhou, and the flame will burn during the December 12-19 Para-Asian Games. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

The sky was so clear, contrary to the previous few days, that the flame collectors, the disabled Adilan Aierken and Guangdong swimmer Zhou Jiawei, waited for no time to light the flame out of a concave, burnished mirror.

"We are blessed," said Zhou, who won the men's 50m and 100m butterfly stroke at the just concluded 16th Asian Games, while his partner, the 20-year-old Adilan burst into tears when the flame was lit.

Leaving the China Millenium Monument, a symbolic and commemorative structure to welcome the Year 2000, the flame will stay in the capital city for another day before leaving for Guangzhou.

A brief starting relay ceremony will be held Saturday morning at Tiananmen Square ahead of a seven-day torch relay around the Guangzhou city, and the flame will burn during the December 12-19 Para-Asian Games.